In a brilliant and caustic criticism of conditions as they existed in the
pre-Bolshevist period, Trotzky denounced what he called "the farce of dual
authority." In a characteristically clever and biting phrase, he described
it as "The epoch of Dual Impotence, the government not able, and the Soviet
not daring," and predicted its culmination in a "crisis of unheard-of
severity."[5] There was more than a little truth in the scornful phrase. On
the one hand, there was the Provisional Government, to which the Soviet had
given its consent and its allegiance, trying to discharge the functions of
government. On the other hand, there was the Soviet itself, claiming the
right to control the course of the Provisional Government and indulging in
systematic criticism of the latter's actions. It was inevitable that the
Soviet should have been driven irresistibly to the point where it must
either renounce its own existence or oppose the Provisional Government.
The dominating spirit and thought of the Soviet was that of international
social democracy. While most of the delegates believed that it was
necessary to prosecute the war and to defeat the aggressions of the Central
Empires, they were still Socialists, internationalists, fundamental
democrats, and anti-imperialists.
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